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Shipping minister GK Vasan said 29 projects, with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore, would be taken up at Chennai Port in various stages.

"Most of these investments will come from private players," he said after laying the foundation stone for the Rs 600-crore Chennai port-Ennore road connectivity project today.

The proposed investments would be made for a new mega terminal, an RO-RO terminal and connectivity projects, among others. Upon completion of these projects, the port's capacity would increase to 140 million tonnes in the next ten years, from the current 61 million tonnes.

On the Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project (EMRIP), the minister said it would be completed in the next two years. A special purpose vehicle has been floated to execute the project.

Of the total cost of Rs 600 crore, Rs 250 crore would be contributed each by the National Highways Authority of India and the Chennai Port Trust while Rs 58.20 crore would come from the Tamil Nadu government and rest by Ennore Port Ltd.

EMRIP, which was conceived in 1998, has been under implementation for the last 10 years. The project envisages improvement of a 30-km road network in north Chennai that connects all the container freight station handling containers for Chennai port.

Apart from land acquisition, EMRIP was also entangled in a legal dispute over relocating the slum people that delayed the project. During this period, the trade suffered due to frequent strikes called by transport operators, who were demanding execution of the project.

The original cost of the project was Rs 150 crore but was revised due to addition of service road to the four lanes of Thiruvottiyur-Pooneri-Panchetti road, provision of underpass on Ennore Expressway Road and drainage on Manali Oil Refinery Road besides escalation of cost during the intervening period.

Vasan said the share of equity contribution by Chennai port on account of cost revision had increased to Rs 139.80 crore from the original Rs 38 crore and for Ennore Port, it had been enhanced to Rs 34.02 crore from Rs 17.50 crore.